ENERGY BLOG

Month: August 2016

There is something strange going on in Iran’s oil and gas facilities. It may not find its way into oil prices right now, but it is something to watch. This week, there have been two more fires – one at the South Pars natural gas complex, and another at the Bu Ali Sina petrochemical refinery. It does not sound like there is ongoing major damage. Tasnin (a private news agency in Iran) reported that “Firefighters brought a fire at a refinery in Iran’s giant South Pars gas field under control on Tuesday, an official announced, saying the blaze has not caused any casualties. Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Qassem Qaedi, crisis management coordinator in the southern province of Busheher, said firefighters have brought the fire under control. It had broken out at a waste storage tank in the 6th refinery unit of South Pars gas field’s phases 15 and 16. The firefighting operation is in good progress, he added, predicting that the blaze would be extinguished shortly. The fire poses no threat to the other facilities in the complex, as other refineries are operating normally, he assured.” [LINK] Tasnin also reported on the BU Ali Sina petrochemical refinery fire, which is southwest of the city of Bandar Mahshahr. There are very few reports on this and no word if there is any major damage. What is interesting is that this petrochemical facility also caught fire in early July.

These aren’t the first fires at Iran’s oil and gas facilities. Our Aug 7, 2016 Energy Tidbits had the following item. “Oil & Natural Gas – A bad week for Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure operations. There were multiple incidents of fires/collisions regarding Iran’s oil and gas operations that didn’t seem to get much attention in the west. Shana (the news agency for Iran’s oil ministry) had dozens of very small briefs, but the best summary briefs came from another Iran news site PressTV. (i) “Iran contains massive gas pipeline fire” was a story ran Saturday morning Iran time and noted a “massive fire on a 42-inch gas pipeline in southern Iran”, “a fire at Iran’s largest oil refinery in Abadan on Thursday was contained with no serious damage”, “Another fire broke out last week at the Bistoon petrochemical plant in Kermanshah in western Iran”, and “ the worst blaze, however, hit Bu Ali Sina petrochemical refinery complex in the southwest city of Bandar Mahshahr last month, seriously damaging its paraxylene unit”. [LINK]

There was good news and bad news in the keynote speech in Manitoba last week by Canada natural resources minister Jim Carr. [LINK]

The Good news: Carr says fossil fuels are needed now so it isn’t a choice of pipelines OR wind. Carr said “But as the Prime Minister has said many times — and this a very important point — “the choice between pipelines and wind turbines is a false one. We need both to reach our goal.” Because while it’s exciting to think about the clean energy, low-carbon economy of the future, we’re not there yet. Even in light of the Paris Agreement, even as the world continues the transition to renewable sources of energy, the demand for fossil fuels will actually increase for decades to come”. It reminds of our view that the Future of Clean Energy is dependent on oil and natural gas.